recipes to live for

A few weeks ago we had a Thai-themed potluck at our house. It was a fantastic success. Tom kha gai! Cucumber salad! Banh mi! Spring rolls! Tea salad! Pineapple fried rice! Pumpkin curry! Pad thai! Sticky rice & mango! My contribution was tom kha gai, the delicious coconut milk soup that has always been my favorite Thai dish. I’d never cooked Thai food before, but it turned out to be incredibly easy. The catch is that you have to have access to some ingredients that might be hard to acquire, especially if you don’t live in a big city. But if you can find the ingredients, this soup is well worth making.

On Wednesday evening, my friend Morley came over for an evening of wine, soup, Obama, and studying. It was a good night. I had a bunch of bread-ends in the freezer that needed to be used up, so I decided to make chicken dumpling soup. The basic soup started with the chicken noodle soup recipe I posted not too long ago, but I omitted the noodles in lieu of dumplings. Morley had brought some lovely farm share leeks so I chopped those up and added them to the stock, which added a lovely, subtle new dimension. I’d never made dumplings before so I kind of winged it but it turned out great! The dumplings were a perfect, slightly sweet, spiced foil for the salty soup, and they stayed together wonderfully (much to my surprise). I used this recipe as a starting point for the dumplings, but ended up changing it pretty heavily. Here’s how I did it.

Chicken Dumpling Soup

INGREDIENTS

One batch of my chicken noodle soup, omitting the noodles and adding one chopped leek at the same time you add the onions, celery, and garlic.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg and egg yolk well. Add to the breadcrumb mixture and mix well. Roll into 1 1/4 inch balls and place on parchment paper. They’ll be a little mushy but don’t worry about it.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and heat it.

Place evenly spaced dumplings in frying pan, minding the fact that it might spatter. Don’t place the dumplings too close to each other or they’ll be difficult to turn.

When dumplings are dark golden brown on one side, turn them to another side and cook till it’s dark golden brown too. Repeat as many times as necessary until all sides are golden brown and crispy.

Keep the dumplings separate from the soup. Add them to each bowl just prior to serving. They stay together fairly well in the soup, but not much longer than the time it takes to eat it. To reheat dumplings (as serving as leftovers), microwave them for 30 seconds before adding them to hot soup.

I’ve discovered the wonders of soup-making just in time for this ultra-rainy San Francisco winter. It’s so easy and satisfying! There’s nothing quite as lovely than a steaming hot bowl of homemade soup to slurp as the rain drips outside and the heater struggles to keep your home warm.

Toss slices of baguette with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and garlic salt, to taste. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Flip each crouton over and bake another 10 minutes, checking to make sure they aren’t getting burnt. Croutons should be golden brown and crispy.

My poor Ed has come down with some sort of sickness, so I decided to make him some chicken noodle soup from scratch. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to canned soup now. This stuff turned out downright amazing. I combined a recipe for chicken soup from the January 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living and this recipe by Tyler Florence and came up with this. Tasty tasty. Comfort food at its best.

NOTE: I have edited this a bit since I first posted it. Tweaked the quantities to make more soup happen! It’s great reheated. I’ve also made a few variations since I originally posted it: adding leftover spiced rice or dumplings instead of noodles, adding leeks, etc. I’ll post the dumpling recipe soon…